The problem of attracting early adopters once again showed itself at the Entrevestor-Entrepreneurs’ Forum luncheon in St. John’s on Thursday, even though it hadn’t been invited.

We had a great turnout and a truly superb meal at the Junior Common Room at Gushue Hall, Memorial University of Newfoundland. About 45 people turned out to join in two discussions – one about the coming Venture Newfoundland and Labrador Fund, and another on encouraging corporations to invest in startups.

Rather than feature keynote speakers, the Entrevestor-EF events are an opportunity for the startup community members to get together and discuss ways to improve the local ecosystem. (In our next dinner, on Sept. 25 in Halifax, Innovacorp CEO Stephen Duff will chair a talk on mentorship while Build Ventures Partner Rob Barbara will lead a discussion on regional investor tax credits.)

In St. John’s, BlueDrop Performance Learning CEO Emad Rizkalla led a dialogue on the best ways to get corporations to invest in startups. But the conversation quickly moved to the related problem of how to attract early adopters.

What’s interesting is that Gerry Pond led a discussion on that very topic at our first Entrevestor-EF Dinner in Fredericton in May. The difficulties of securing early adopters -- and working with them to develop a product – are bedeviling startups across the region. We hope that by discussing the issue, startups and organizers will develop systems that can help overcome the problem.

The first session at the St. John’s event was a discussion on the coming VC fund, which will combine private and public money and be overseen by GrowthWorks Atlantic. It was led by Mark Kennedy, CEO of Celtx. There was a broad agreement the fund will help overcome the financing problem that many startups now experience.

The Entrevestor-Entrepreneurs’ Forum Dinner in Halifax on Sept. 25 will be held at the Niche Lounge on Barrington Street, starting at 4 pm. The two topics up for discussion are:

--  Rob Barbara, Partner at Build Ventures, will host as discussion on regional investment tax credits. Various governments are discussing whether to offer investment tax credits to people who are not residents of their province to encourage investment in startups. We’ll look at whether such credits should be offered to non-residents, and whether the recipients could even live outside the region.

--  Stephen Duff, CEO of Innovacorp, will lead a talk on mentorship. This is a continuation of a discussion that Calvin Milbury, CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, led in Fredericton. Since then, Launch36 has received federal funding and launched a new, more regional mandate. And the Mentra, a new mentoring group based in Moncton, has begun to organize a regional mentoring network.

Tickets for the dinner are $75 each and can be purchased here.